Chapter 162: The Looping Corridor (Fourth Update, Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Pass)

Chapter 162: The Looping Corridor (Fourth Update, Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Pass)

Before Chen Xu was darkness, and not a single sound reached his ears.

At the same time, Li Yue felt a chill sweep over him.

The semi-enclosed gaming pod came with its own cooling system, which players could choose to turn on or off. Some games could even regulate the temperature automatically.

‘Be careful, the crack in that Conduit… it’s a parallel reality.’

‘I am who I am. Are you sure you’re the only you?’

Two lines of subtitles appeared before Li Yue, leaving him slightly bewildered.

But before he could make sense of what those words meant, the game graphics appeared.

At the start of the game, it was clear the protagonist had just awakened from a cold floor. Combined with the cooling effect from the VR gaming pod, Li Yue involuntarily shivered.

And as he shivered, the in-game visuals synchronized with the movement.

A highly realistic cockroach crawled past right in front of him, causing Li Yue’s lips to twitch.

Although he stood at 185 cm tall, creatures like cockroaches and Broodmothers still unsettled him.

It wasn’t fear, exactly—just a deep sense of disgust.

At that moment, the tightly shut Wooden Door in the room suddenly creaked open by itself with a ‘creak’.

Yet Li Yue’s mind remained completely unperturbed.

After all, the game had just begun, and such scenarios weren’t uncommon. So Li Yue stayed calm.

He looked around. The starting area was a pitch-black room with bare cement walls on all sides. Directly ahead was a Wooden Door slightly ajar, and above the doorframe hung an incandescent bulb.

But it emitted only a weak, ghastly pale light.

He didn’t rush forward. Instead, Li Yue performed some basic operations in place.

He found he could only perform fundamental actions—walking, using his hands for simple operations, and crouching.

Actions like crawling, jumping, or sprinting elicited no response, clearly indicating the game hadn’t implemented such mechanics.

There were no UI prompts or anything similar, which didn’t surprise Li Yue. After all, this was just a test DEMO, not a full game.

He hoped the upcoming content would be more intense, more interesting.

Right now, Li Yue’s mood remained relaxed.

He pushed the door open. Outside lay a narrow corridor.

The space was barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Incandescent lights flickered along the walls and at the end of the corridor.

Yet the reach of the light was unnaturally small. Where the light touched, the area was bright.

Elsewhere, everything was deeply shadowed.

The stark contrast between light and darkness gave the game graphics a deeply eerie quality.

Li Yue also noticed something else: the murals on the walls. Some were clear, while others appeared deliberately blurred, making it impossible to discern what they depicted.

Thanks to the massive performance improvements of the new version VR equipment, the most direct result was that the game’s VR presentation felt increasingly lifelike.

This hyper-realistic graphics, combined with the unsettling Atmosphere, instantly amplified the tension.

Still, as a carefully selected tester, Li Yue had seen his share of intense situations. He paused only briefly in place, surveyed the surroundings, and then continued forward.

Midway down the corridor, on the right-hand side, was a recess containing a table.

On it sat a digital clock, displaying the time—23:59.

On the wall above the clock hung several extremely blurred paintings. One appeared to depict a U-shape, with a black dot in the center—an image that looked deeply unsettling.

Next to the table corner lay a pile of empty liquor bottles, hinting the room’s owner might have been an alcoholic.

Nothing seemed particularly significant.

Yet something felt off.

Mainly, the surroundings were too silent.

Each footstep echoed on the floor, reverberating as if treading directly on Li Yue’s heart.

This silence, broken only by footsteps, made the entire gameplay experience feel oppressive.

After confirming the digital clock held no special significance, Li Yue continued forward along the corridor.

Soon, he reached the end of the corridor—a corner.

Beyond the corner stretched another narrow corridor.

To the left stood a wooden cabinet in disarray.

It held a seemingly damaged telephone, a photo of what appeared to be the house’s male and female owners, and scattered across the table were numerous white pills—everything in chaos.

Just like before, Li Yue found nothing unusual and continued walking forward.

At the corner stood a tightly shut door that wouldn’t open. Ahead, a large doorway leading to the catacomb stood open. To the left was a coat rack; to the right, a framed photo of the couple, a radio, and a pile of cigarette butts.

Directly above, a dimly lit chandelier hung from the second floor.

As Li Yue approached, a burst of static noise erupted from the radio, gradually sharpening into clarity.

It seemed to be broadcasting a news report.

‘On the day of the tragedy, the father went to the trunk of his car, retrieved a hunting rifle, and shot his wife who was cleaning the kitchen after lunch.’

‘When his 10-year-old son came to investigate the noise, the father shot him too.’

‘His 6-year-old daughter cleverly hid in the bathroom, but the report stated he told her it was just a game and lured her out. She was shot point-blank in the chest.’

‘The wife, killed by her husband, had been pregnant at the time.’

‘After neighbors made alarm calls, state police arrived at the scene. They found the father sitting in his car, listening to the radio.’

‘In the days before the tragedy, neighbors said they heard the father loudly repeating a sequence of numbers, as if chanting a strange incantation.’

‘Last month, another family in the same state suffered a similar shooting. And another case occurred last December.’

‘A man used a hunting rifle and a meat cleaver to murder his entire family. In each case, the perpetrator was the father.’

‘State police say these family tragedies appear unrelated, though they might stem from common real-world issues like unemployment, child-rearing stress, and other societal pressures.’

Li Yue stood still, waiting. From the radio broadcast, he gathered crucial information.

Could it be that the house he was in was the very one where that tragedy occurred? And was he playing the role of the father who committed the murders?

Privately, Li Yue glanced around. Just like before—nothing out of the ordinary.

Yet still, a faint unease stirred in his chest.

Because he couldn’t shake the feeling that a monster might suddenly appear and scare him.

Yet so far, there hadn’t been any high-intensity scenes.

He had played Chen Xu’s Outlast before, and while many parts startled him, it was just jump scares.

But this simple DEMO called Silent Hill PT gave him a completely different sensation.

It wasn’t just because it was a VR game. More importantly, it was the game’s overall Atmosphere.

Taking a deep breath, Li Yue forced himself to stop dwelling on these chaotic thoughts and focused his attention entirely on the game ahead. After all, he was here to test it.

He crept forward step by step, slower than an old man strolling through a park.

Passing through the open doorway, descending the stairs, and opening another door, Li Yue froze completely.

Because everything before him felt painfully familiar.

It was the same long corridor from the beginning of the game.

He… had returned?

Two lights shone, one ahead and one behind. The blurred mural on the left wall still hung there. The digital clock read 23:59.

A supernatural loop?

Suddenly, Li Yue felt a chill run through his entire body.

Up to this point, the entire game had remained within the confines of this corridor.

Aside from the cockroach at the beginning, no other moving entity had appeared. Yet already, a deep sense of oppression and a creeping panic had begun to take root in his heart.

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